Adriana

 

Adriana stood outside an upscale building in Hoboken, feeling her palms go sticky with sweat and her breaths become shorter as she stared up to the top floor, where Ryder was presumably waiting for her, assuming that she’d gotten the right address from the servants at the Rainieri compound.

 

“Shit, shit, shit, what am I doing?” she muttered under her breath, turning to look at the skyline behind her. She supposed she could call a cab to get her out of this situation, but she was far away from her apartment, and she wasn’t even sure her cell phone got service out here in this relatively secluded area.

 

And anyway, she really needed this job, really fucking badly. She couldn’t afford to let it go just because she was intimidated by her new boss—not that she would ever admit that fact out loud. So far, it seemed like he’d believed she was a tough, no-nonsense professional who wasn’t to be fucked with. As long as she kept up her walls and didn’t let him get too close during their dinner, she could maintain a certain level of distance that was necessary for any professional relationship to function.

 

“Phew, okay,” she said, having mentally reassured herself. After squaring her shoulders and straightening her spine, she strode into the building with as much confidence as she could muster and took the elevator to the top floor.

 

She walked up to the front door of Ryder’s penthouse apartment, wringing her hands for a moment as one last spark of fear reverberated throughout her body right before she hit the doorbell as firmly as possible. Fuck it. There was no turning back now.

 

Ryder opened the door a few moments later, appearing out of the shadows with a broad smile on his face, dressed impeccably in a spotless suit. “Hi, Adriana. So glad you found the place okay,” he said before opening the door wider so Adriana could step inside.

 

“Thanks,” Adriana said, saying a silent prayer of gratitude that she’d opted for a nice black dress rather than staying in her drab work clothes from earlier. It wasn’t like she cared about how she looked, but she would have felt awkward if she’d been underdressed, especially in such a nice apartment.

 

“Here, I’ll take your jacket.” Ryder offered his hand to take the light coat that Adriana was wearing over her dress. He hung the jacket up in the closet just inside the apartment, then gestured for Adriana to follow him deeper inside.

 

The place was, in a word, ridiculous—in the best way possible. There was a giant crystal chandelier hanging down from the ceiling, casting an ethereal golden light over the entire den and kitchen area. Every surface was spotless, shining so brightly that Adriana could see her own reflection.

 

Classic black furniture filled each room that she could see, and deep red curtains hung from every window, but they were pulled back to reveal a view of the stars. The apartment looked so extravagant that it was almost tacky, but somehow, it seemed to fit Ryder’s personality. He was the type of person that seemed to buzz with energy even when sitting still, yet, at the same time, something was calming about him, too.

 

He was like a great big glittering ocean—one minute he was a rush of energy, filling her with anxiety, and then the next minute, he soothed it all away, like the tide carrying away flecks of sand. Even though she’d just met him earlier that day, she felt like she’d known him for years. Now, as she watched him crack open a bottle of wine in the kitchen, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there was more of Paolo in him than she originally thought.

 

“Do you like red wine?” Ryder asked as he poured a glass of it.

 

“Sure, as much as anybody does,” Adriana replied.

 

Ryder chuckled lightly and poured another glass before handing one over to Adriana. “There’s liking it, and then there’s loving it, I suppose. As for me, I can’t talk business without it. It’s just how I was raised.”

 

After Adriana accepted her glass of wine, Ryder gently tapped their glasses together. “What are you toasting?” Adriana asked. For some reason, that question must have seemed amusing to Ryder, as he suddenly grinned, his teeth shining under the lights hanging above them. “What?” she asked again, feeling a wave of heat rush up her back and lower neck, her nerves getting the best of her.

 

“Oh, nothing, it’s nothing,” Ryder replied, chuckling a little again. But his eyes gleamed with something, some secret knowledge that Adriana was now desperate to uncover. “Just toast with me, come on.”

 

“Not until you tell me what we’re toasting to,” Adriana said, her skin now prickling with some weird mixture of discomfort and anticipation. She needed to know what was so funny. She had a horrible feeling that he was mocking her somehow, that she’d made some horrible “poor person” mistake that betrayed her lowly upbringing.

 

“I promise to tell you after dinner,” Ryder said. “But let’s eat first. It’ll be funnier after you get a few glasses of wine in you. Come on, toast with me.”

 

Adriana was tempted to chew on her upper lip, just to do something to exorcise some of the anxiety simmering on her skin, but she didn’t want to mess up her lipstick, so instead, she just nodded and pushed her glass together with Ryder’s. “To… whatever,” she announced a little sarcastically.

 

“To whatever, indeed.” Ryder tipped his glass back. As he lowered his glass again, Adriana thought she caught some glint of hunger in Ryder’s eyes, something feral and primal and desperate. But she shook her head, then sipped her wine and told herself that it was just a trick of the light. He’s just a normal guy. Okay, a normal guy with a ludicrously nice apartment, but just a guy nonetheless.

 

For whatever reason, she couldn’t exactly convince herself that was true, but somehow, she didn’t feel scared. Her spine burned with something, but it wasn’t fear or anxiety or even regular-old nervousness anymore. It was desire, a deep, urgent need to know more about the man standing across from her.

 

She tried as hard as she could to play it cool, acting as disinterested as possible as she sipped at the wine, careful not to get too drunk too quickly. “So, tell me, why do you think your dad named you as his heir instead of Giovanni?”

 

Before answering her question, Ryder drained the rest of his glass, immediately grabbing the bottle to fill it up again. “I don’t think I can answer that.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because I don’t know the answer,” Ryder replied with a wry smile. “I haven’t even talked to my dad in, like, six months, and even then, it was just a two-minute phone conversation. I’m just about the biggest disappointment in Rainieri family history.”

 

“Go on,” Adriana said, leaning against the counter behind her back.

 

Ryder smiled again, but it was shyer this time, a little more guarded. “Well, you know. You saw it today. I can’t focus on anything. My mind wanders and goes… other places.” He took another drink of his wine, but he kept his eyes trained on Adriana’s, causing a little shiver to run up her spine. She tried as hard as she could to stay still, not to squirm as a result of his penetrating gaze, but if the smile on his face was any indication, she failed in that endeavor.

 

“Like what other places? Where does your mind go?” Adriana asked, feeling her heart begin to pound lightly in her throat, a flutter of a heartbeat that she could almost taste on her tongue. She didn’t know why she felt so excited, so on-edge about knowing the private details of Ryder Rainieri’s mind, but for whatever reason, it felt urgent to uncover them.

 

“Why does it matter?” Ryder said flatly, shrugging a little. “They’re the wrong places. That’s the whole point.”

 

Adriana stared at him a minute before coming up with an excuse for why she needed to know where his mind wandered. “I think maybe I took the wrong approach with you.” She scratched her chin in thought. “I should have found out what areas of the business you were interested in first and then taken it from there. It’s really my fault, not yours.”

 

Ryder looked at her skeptically, rolling his eyes a little as he took another sip of his wine. “Women always do that.”

 

“Do what?” Adriana asked.

 

“Make excuses for men. Blame themselves. Act like they didn’t do the right thing. Come on, you know that’s bullshit. I wasn’t paying attention. It was disrespectful to you when you were devoting your time to trying to help me.”

 

Adriana laughed a little, then, surprising herself at the loud noise that left her own throat. She recovered quickly, though, clearing her throat and refocusing her attention back down on her wine glass. “Fair enough,” she said. “Still, I’d like to know what you find most interesting about the business. Unless you don’t find anything interesting about it, in which case maybe the best course of action would be to turn things over to Giovanni.”

 

Ryder physically flinched a little at that, his eyebrows furrowing together for a moment before he relaxed his face again, shrugging again like he didn’t care about the family business at all. “Maybe,” he said, but before either of them could say anything else, the door rang again. “Ah, that’ll be Yuri with dinner.”

 

“Yuri?” Adriana asked.

 

“My chef,” Ryder explained as he headed toward the front door again, ushering his chef inside along with a tray full of food. “You can set up on the dining room table, Yuri, thank you.”

 

Adriana watched as Ryder’s chef set up in the dining room, which was just beyond the kitchen and den. She’d expected a long, thin dining room table, but instead, there was just a small circular one, only fit for two people. Adriana wondered if Ryder ever entertained anyone other than dates here, feeling a little thrill of fear and anticipation go up her spine.

 

“Thank you, Yuri,” Ryder said to his chef as he handed him a handful of bills. “I’ll see you later.” The chef left without saying a single word to Adriana, and Ryder locked the door after him, making the lump in Adriana’s throat grow. She wasn’t scared, exactly. She knew, in a kind of instinctive way, that Ryder wasn’t going to hurt her. But she still had no way of predicting what he was going to do or say. He was such a mystery, so different from his mother and brother, who were both so easy to read.

 

“What’s for dinner?” Adriana asked, stepping closer to the food, which smelled amazing. Her stomach growled a little, but if Ryder heard the noise, he was too polite to mention it.

 

“The works,” Ryder said with another mischievous grin. “Filet mignon, asparagus, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, dessert…” He trailed off, walking past Adriana to the dining room table and pulling out one chair. “Here, come sit. I’ll bring the bottle of wine over.”

 

Adriana did as she was instructed, folding her hands neatly in her lap, even though, at this point, her stomach was clawing at its own insides, desperate to dig into something hearty and filling.

 

A moment later, Ryder returned with the bottle of wine, pouring more into Adriana’s glass, even though it was still half-full. He set a plate down in front of her, then opened the packages of steaming hot food. He placed healthy portions of each option on Adriana’s plate before serving himself and finally sitting down across from her.

 

Adriana stared down at the food for a long moment, wanting to take a mental picture of this meal before her mouth totally demolished it. She was so excited, her feet started kicking forward like she was a little girl, but then she reared back a second later after she accidentally kicked Ryder’s foot, unaware of how close together they were at the small table. “Fuck, sorry,” Adriana said softly, feeling herself blush in embarrassment.

 

“No worries,” Ryder said. “A tiny bit of pain never killed anyone.”

 

Adriana felt herself smiling, despite the fact that she didn’t even understand what he meant by that. There was just something so charming and reassuring about his warm smile. She couldn’t keep herself from returning the favor until she was practically grinning at him as she finally dug into her food.

 

They ate in relative silence for a few minutes, both of them evidently hungry enough to focus on the food for a little while instead of each other, but as time went by and Adriana became gradually looser as a result of the wine, a question from earlier pestered at her, picking away at her brain until she finally opened her mouth to ask it out loud.

 

“It seemed to bother you earlier when I said Giovanni might be the better fit for your dad’s position. Why?” Adriana asked.

 

Ryder’s fork froze in midair, suspended between his plate and his mouth. He stared at her for a long moment before answering. “Because it’s not true,” he finally said, clearing his throat before taking another bite.

 

“Explain,” Adriana said, even though she had a feeling she already knew the answer. After all, she’d spent the last year with Giovanni breathing down her neck, making disgusting comments whenever she wore anything more revealing than a burlap sack. He clearly wanted to fuck her, which would never happen as long as she lived.

 

At the same time, he was a brutish, cruel bully that liked to torture the servants of the Rainieri compound, making them do pointless tasks just for his own amusement. Any of these reasons should have been enough by themselves to justify passing Giovanni over for the Don position, but she still wanted Ryder’s opinion on the matter.

 

“Because,” Ryder began, chewing slowly in between words, “he’s an idiot. He’s simple-minded.”

 

That wasn’t exactly the answer she was expecting to hear. “Go on,” Adriana prompted Ryder, her curiosity piqued beyond the point of no return. She simply had to know what he meant now.

 

“You know what I mean.” Ryder washed down his words with another huge gulp of wine. “He sees what he wants, and he grabs it without thinking. That’s a bad way to do business in the long-term.”

 

“And you don’t do that?” Adriana was a little skeptical, honestly, knowing what she did about Ryder’s reputation as a playboy in New York. He definitely seemed like the type of man who wouldn’t hesitate to fuck a girl the second he met her.

 

But Ryder shook his head, swallowing heavily to clear his mouth before speaking again. “Not when I have a choice. It’s like… say you have a really cheap, kind of mediocre meal. You might eat it right away, just to fill your stomach and get it over with. And then you forget about it. But with a meal like this…” He paused, gesturing to the food around them, which still made Adriana’s mouth water. “With something like this, it takes time to prepare, and it takes time to appreciate. You don’t rush through it. That way, you can appreciate as much of it as you possibly can. Me? I like to take my time. Do things right. You know what I mean?”

 

Adriana wasn’t sure that she did know what he meant, except that for some reason, she was finding it hard to breathe. Her heartbeat had traveled up to her ears, now pounding against her temples. She didn’t know if her body was telling her to run away, to get as far away from this man as possible, or if it was saying that she should get closer. All she knew was that her fingers were now trembling, powerfully enough that Ryder could probably see her knife shaking, despite how tightly she was clutching it.

 

After a long pause where neither of them spoke, Ryder broke the silence again. “What about you? Do you like to go quick… or slow?”

 

Adriana forced out a chuckle and gave herself a tiny reprieve by taking a long sip of wine, giving her brain enough time to come up with a semi-appropriate response. “With food? It depends on how hungry I am.”

 

“How hungry are you now?” Ryder asked, smiling at her with that hunger in his eyes again, that sharp desire that made him look like his entire face was made out of perfect, unbreakable glass.

 

“Starving,” Adriana replied, her tongue moving of its own accord, speaking that one word without her brain’s consent. Immediately after the word left her mouth, she felt her whole body got hot with fear and shock. It was like some demon had possessed her, telling her what to say and do, responding to some equally devious demon inside of Ryder.

 

Except deep down, she knew that wasn’t true. If there was something inside of her, directing her like a puppet, it was only her soul.

 

Ryder stopped grinning at her, his face turning serious, all of his features turning to stone. “Are you?” he whispered, reaching his hand across the table in Adriana’s direction.

 

She stared down at it for a long moment, unsure what he was asking her to do. “I—I don’t know,” she stuttered out in response, feeling tiny beads of sweat at the base of her neck, right under her hairline.

 

“I think you do,” Ryder said, slowly pulling his hand back and then getting to his feet. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

 

Adriana felt like she was standing at the edge of a precipice. One wrong move and she could hurtle down towards the abyss, losing total control over herself. She didn’t know what he wanted to do specifically, but she knew it had nothing to do with the business. If she were smart, if she cared about her job, if she were really the good career-focused, family-centered girl that she claimed to be, she would have already pulled her napkin out of her lap, thanked him for dinner, and walked out. But she didn’t.

 

Slowly, feeling her entire body shake more intensely with each passing second, she got to her feet. She swallowed around the dryness in her mouth and looked up to face Ryder, staring him directly in the eyes. Somehow, that did the trick. His eyes seemed to suck all the fear out of her body, leaving her buzzing with anticipation. She walked around the table to get closer to him, bending her neck up so she could maintain intense eye contact the whole time. And then she said it—two words, powerful enough to destroy her whole world.

 

“Show me.”